"Responding effectively to threats requires a clear understanding of an organisation's key assets, such as IP or financial systems and careful analysis of the risk to those assets, including reputational damage." nick chaffey, defence, security and resilience consulting, PA CONSULTING GROUP

Cyber Security Forum 2011: taking action on the cyber threat

The Cyber Security Forum 2011, produced by Rustat Conferences of Jesus College Cambridge and supported by PA Consulting Group and the ICT KTN, brought together key decision makers and experts from government, the private sector and academia to discuss the challenges of cyber security and the opportunity it presents to the UK's economy.

The forum was supported by the Office for Cyber Security and Information Assurance (part of the Cabinet Office), the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the University of Cambridge. It explored key cyber security issues including:

managing people risk and the insider threat, presented by PA cyber security expert Bill Windle and the UK Government's Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). Bill discussed how organisations can manage the potential threat from insiders as part of an integrated approach to cyber security, drawing on PA's work with the CPNI, where PA is helping to develop new national guidance on a holistic approach to managing people, physical and cyber risk in public and private sector organisations

working together across government, industry and academia to achieve excellence in cyber security, presented by PA's Ed Savage. Ed suggested five areas for collaboration including: achieving improved understanding outside of the security profession; establishing a clear view on what good cyber security looks like; defining security requirements with ICT service providers and especially cloud providers; giving a stronger voice to the UK’s large SME community; and addressing the skills shortage.

Key to the success of the forum was the series of facilitated, interactive working sessions which intended to create a lasting partnership across sectors and to generate practical and meaningful recommendations as part of the UK's response to the cyber security challenge. A report will be available shortly.

To find out more about developing an effective cyber security strategy and protecting your organisation from the insider threat, please contact us now.